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Super tax proposal could open door to alternative management strategies

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By Keeli Cambourne
August 01 2023
2 minute read
2 View Comments
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The $3 million super tax proposal could open the door to conversations with clients about how to manage the transfer of wealth to beneficiaries to avoid them being hit by big tax bills, says leading adviser Meg Heffron.

By letting accumulation accounts bloom, SMSFs are setting themselves for a much bigger tax problem, Ms Heffron said during her keynote address at last week’s SMSF Association Technical Summit.

Ms Heffron said the government is looking at ballooning SMSFs and wanting to ‘clamp down’ on them, not realising that many of the members in these funds are old and used superannuation as a wealth creation vehicle when there was no compulsory cashing.

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“The cases we’re seeing now, most of the people are very elderly and are dying now,” she said.

“They’ve lived through an environment where most of the time there was compulsory cashing, or they were heavily incentivised to draw down on their super, and it’s only for the last six years, they haven’t.

“But in 10 years’ time, we’ll have people who have left their accumulation accounts there for years and have never drawn anything out, and the death tax problem is going to get bigger.”

Ms Heffron said the tax rate now is at a rate of only around 15 per cent for most people, but she also raised the question of what will happen to these funds with the $3 million super tax proposal and death benefit payments.

“It raises the question of what will happen when member and their partner dies, and the money goes to your state tax, because it’s ultimately going to your adult children, which will be left with a big tax bill at that point,” she said.

“I think the $3 million thing, by focusing our mind on getting money out of super, will actually push us to address the bigger issue, which is this one.

“Do we simply encourage our clients to turn their accumulation accounts into fake pensions, and start drawing them down at the same rate that they draw their pension out?

“Taking money out of super and putting it elsewhere may give the beneficiaries a much larger inheritance.”

“[You think about] how much wealthier would I be if I’d done this especially if the person dies at say 65, 66, or 67.

“You can see the longer it goes on, the more you’re taking out, but the more death tax we’re saving, and the more the children love us and want to become a client.

“I know people would love to say I’m going to wait until the day before someone dies and I’m going to completely liquidate their fund and take everything out and avoid the death tax.

“Fantastic. If we can do that, it’s brilliant. But I would challenge you to look at your client base and look at all the people who’ve died and I would love you to find the case where that was done perfectly.

“Remember our clients have access to really good advice, and they still can’t quite get there. It’s never as simple as you think to completely liquidate an SMSF.

“People don’t want to have this conversation about liquidating their SMSF when they’re nearing end of life, so I think this idea of a gradual withdrawal is actually something that appeals.

“This getting the money out progressively might well be the valuable conversation that comes out of the new tax.”

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Comments (2)

  • avatar
    Meg

    Taking money out of Super and giving to kids is a good idea to avoid the death tax of 17% but it can be a problem where there are lumpy good assets in the fund - sometimes that asset is the factory where the business is being operated from

    A $11.4M fund ($1.9M X 6 members) can be easily (over a number of years) be distributed and retained in the fund even if there is limited cash in the fund

    SMSF should always be the asset holder for inter generational wealth due to its concessional tax rate

    Pulling money out as and when we reach $3 M is something SMSF advisors need to learn and advise and accountants to implement when we get this new law

    Larger families should have two or more SMSF’s and the use of 13.22C trusts where several family SMSF’s invest to buy inter generational assets should be advised instead of direct investment

    As advisors, we need to learn how to adapt
    0
  • avatar
    Thank you Meg - some great common sense.

    I will admit that the egregious nature of this tax (which would have meant paying more than twice what my smsf pays in my own name under the Treasury Proposal (taxing unrealised capital gains), and 15% in the smsf (taxing only taxable income of the fund), all due to enormous capital gains when using my own 2022 and 2021 tax returns as an example, got me looking into this very issue and I realised why I was offhandedly told once that it would be best to liquidate most of our assets out of super probably in my 70s, assuming that I was in good health up until that time.

    In a different tax vehicle, the tax rates can be between 25% and 30%, with the added bonus of having a lot more control of the earnings and the assets, with possibly a lot less red tape as well.

    In our case, this Treasury Proposal will bring forward the moving of assets out of super, except that retirement is a key prerequisite.... Not so good for some.

    Yes, in my case, it has certainly brought forward plans that I may otherwise not have thought of until later in life, to my family's detriment, and even to my own detriment. For tax reasons, I will actually be far better off in moving assets out of super, but not into my own name. I still love the Asset Protection piece of mind that superannuation gives me, but I can get this elsewhere as well, with lots of added advantages over the SMSF.

    The government is doing it's utmost best to keep us from being completely self-sufficient - it needs people to be reliant on it for its very survival. Except for the work involved in moving the assets, which is easier to do when I am younger as opposed to when I am older, it behooves me to start thinking and acting on this now anyhow - but I need to retire first. Fortunately, I can trigger that now.
    0
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